Running Out of Ways to Characterize the Disaster That is Obamacare

RUSH: Bob in Ava, New York, as we start on the phones halfway into the program. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you. Great to talk to you again. Boy, you're harder to get in touch with than a man with his feelings.

RUSH: (laughing) You've just been waiting to use that line.

CALLER: Oh, for two years.

RUSH: Yeah, I'll bet.

CALLER: I have two questions. Number one: Where does the Obamacare penalty money go? Number two: Can you start your own insurance company if you have enough money to do it, to cover your own insurance, and would you not have to pay the penalty?

RUSH: You know, I hadn't thought of that. (laughing) I'm sure that somewhere in Obamacare, it's forbidden -- and if it isn't, Obama would write an executive order to prevent it. I'm sure that there is some provision of Obamacare saying that you can't start your own insurance company to insure yourself 'cause that's self-pay and that goes against the nature, the spirit of the law.

But it's still an interesting idea just to tweak 'em. It's something to toy with. As far as where the money goes, it goes where all tax revenue goes. It goes to the debt. That's the wrong way to put it. Theoretically, the money that people are paying in fines is gonna go to the same place that the money people are spending on policies gonna go.

It's gonna go to insure the elderly or to treat the elderly, or to provide coverage for the uninsured. I mean, this is the stated theory. My point is, we're $17 trillion in debt. What is it that...? Where's the money going to go? Wherever Obama wants to use it is where it's gonna go, for whatever political purpose he has in mind. But as far as the way they would officially answer it, it would be to cover the elderly and the sick and the uninsured.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, folks, the reason why I hesitated on the answer to the question, "Where does the money go?" Now, by law, it goes to subsidize people, people that can't afford it. But the fact of the matter is, the news is out today that the administrative costs of Obamacare are twice what they're taking in from everybody, be it people signing up and paying, be it people paying fines. It's like everything else. The money coming in is dwarfed by the amount of money going out and the amount of money being spent.

I've got the story somewhere here in the Stack. I just happened to stumble on it. "Obamacare’s Regulatory Costs More than Double Benefits." Right there in The Daily Caller. "The annual cost of Obamacare regulations --" this is just the regulations. This is not even the $900 billion it supposedly is gonna cost. The regulations, the annual costs of Obamacare religions came in at almost $7 billion a year so far. That's two and a half times the total benefits of these regulations. It's just insane. It's absurd.

"The federal government’s estimates of Obamacare’s regulatory 'benefits' -- what they project in increased efficiency or productivity due to streamlined processes and standards -- clock in at just $2.6 billion annually, as opposed to the cost of complying with all those regulations, which is almost $7 billion."

I mean, this is beyond describing. Let me see if I can translate this for you. Clear the official broadcast. We said we're gonna do it to lower costs. There isn't a person that voted for this that thought it was gonna lower costs. There's not one Democrat that voted for this that thought it was gonna lower costs. They said so, they all said it would. I mean, Obama lied through his teeth. How many times: "Your premium is gonna come down $2,500. Keep your doctor; keep your plan." Strict across-the-board lies.

But folks, this is not even care. We're not even talking about treatment here. These are just the regulations, the thousands upon thousands of little sentences that have been added to Obamacare that allow whoever to do what as they shall determine. These regulations are supposed to streamline the whole process and reduce costs and make it all more efficient than it was when the private sector was doing it. The government once again, even though it's never succeeded at this, the government was gonna do it better. They were gonna do it more cheaply. They were gonna do it more efficiently. They're gonna do it costing less money. Social Security, better than the private system, whatever, Medicare, better than the private system. It's never been the case and they promise the same thing here.

So the regulatory benefits, what they project in increased efficiency or productivity due to streamlining -- he-he-he -- $2.6 billion. That's how much money they save. The cost of complying -- that means the people who are subjected to these -- a regulation is a law. Let's put it this way. They call it a regulation 'cause Congress didn't vote on it. It could be a regulation from the FDA. It could be a regulation from the EPA. It could be a regulation from Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, write a regulation, meaning something somebody has to comply with.

What these numbers say is they came up with these regulations that they, in their brilliance, thought would save money and streamline processes, and the people subject to these regulations, the amount of money these regulations are costing, is two and a half times what we're saving, if we're saving anything. I mean, that's probably a bogus assertion in itself. Obamacare's regulatory costs more than double the supposed benefits from those regulations.

Another pull quote. "A large portion of the costs come from the paperwork burden that Obamacare places upon states and private companies. Implementing the law takes 159 million paperwork hours a year for state governments and the private sector." Implementing it! Following it! Putting it into action! That is "an amount that would take close to 80,000 employees, working 50 weeks per year full-time." That's 40-hour weeks, by the way. That's how much it costs people to comply, to enact all these brilliant cost-saving regulations.

"Obamacare authorizes at least 11 regulations that will have a significant economic impact on small businesses, including mandatory labeling for restaurant menus and vending machines [caloric content, nutritional value labels] and payment systems policies, among others. The total bill will be $1.9 billion for small companies, according to the federal government’s public numbers."

So where does the money go? Doesn't matter. We don't have it. We are spending twice as much as we are, quote, unquote, saving. Two and a half times what we're taking in is one way to look at it. I'm running out of ways to characterize what a disaster it is. It's like some of my golf shots. You know, folks, I sometimes hit golf shots that are so bad, I couldn't do it if I tried. And that's what we're talking about. You couldn't screw something up like this as bad as they have if they were trying to. Literally. I hit golf shots that people playing with me said, "Could you do that again on purpose?"

"No. I don't have any idea what I did in the first place." I mean, the ball goes places that physics says it's not possible for it to go. Like a shot that ends up behind you that never hits the ground. "Could you do that every shot, Rush? I mean that might be a good way to approach the green if you got a trap --" I can do it when I'm not trying. That's what these people are doing. Screwing it up so bad that it's happening when they're not even trying to.